Infant&#39;s feeding set



May 1 1952 c. 's. LA TOUR INFANTS FEEDING SET Filed Dec. 23, 1948 agingthe early development of eating habits.

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Patented May 13, 1952 Clifiord SaLa Tour, phicago ;Ill., assignor .toLyn- Chicago Corporation, Chicago, I lL, a corporationof IllinoisApplication December 23, 1M8, Serial No. 66,906-

Thepresent invention relates :to infants" feeding sets. Moreparticularly, the invention is concerned wi-th'the provision of a setcomprising a dish and a spoon which primarily is :for :use b an infantat the age when he is first learning to feed himself.

It has been learned that right or left-handednesslater life can beinfluenced to a great extent at the time an infant is first beginningtouse his hands for grasping: objects placed near Particularly it hasbeen learned that one of the strongest early influences on handedness isthe eating habits developed .by a child when he first begins to feedhimself. It is known. of course; that left-handedness in an individualis nsubstantial handicap because of the fact that many operations aredesigned to be performed most easily .in a right-handed manner and muchequipment must be specially constructed at higher cost if it is to beoperated by a left-handedperson.

In view of the above it .is cone of the objects of. my invention toprovide :a novel eating set comprising: a specially constructed dish andspoon for the use of an infant at the time he begins feeding :himselfwhich makes righthandedcfeedi-ng extremely easy and left-handed eatingsubstantially impossible, thereby encourright-handed A,;f:urther objectof my invention isto provide a novel dish and co-operating spoon whichop.- .erate :tQgether in encouraging right-handed eat- Yet anotherobject of my invention is to provide a-ncvel spoon which is most easilyused in air ight-handed manner.

stillancther objectisto provide a, novel dish from which food is mosteasily obtained by righthanded eating.

Stillanother object of the present invention :is-toprovide a novel dishfrom. which food may be transferred to a spoon more easil than is thecase with ordinary dishes for even with any specially constructedinfants dishes of which I .amaware.

Yetanotherobject of the present invention is to provide an infants fooddish which cannot easily be picked up, thereby making food spilling lesslikely.

Still another object is to provide an infant's dishwhich encourages theinfant to lean forward while'eating, thereby malging the spillingoffendfromithezzspoon,lessalikely.

,yfltherzobiectswand advantages will become au- 2 Claims. (cries-2.9)

parent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of myinvention which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a high, front perspective view of a dish constructed accordingto the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view which may be considered as taken inthe direction of the arrows substantially along the line 2-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view which may be consideredas taken inthe direction of the arrowssubstantially along the line .3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is-a right-hand end view of the dish and :Fig. :5 is a high,front perspective view .of a spoon which also comprises a part of thepresent invention.

Thedishshown in thedrawings may be formed of ceramic material or may bemolded of .any of a number of suitable plastic materials or may befor-med .of metal or the like. In general it is formed to provide aconcavely curvedufront edge in which connected by well rounded frontcorners- 12 to side edges 114 which are substantially straight but whichare angledltoward each other .so that the back of the dish at LG isnarrower than the front. The side edges H are smoothly rounded into theback edge I 6.

Preferably the front and side faces [8 and Y20, respectively, convergedtoward the top so that the tbp surface 22 of the dish is somewhatsmaller than the. bottom surface thereof; This configuration: has theadvantage of making the dish difiiculttograsp, thereby preventing itsbeing picked up and the contentsspilled.

l-nthe top surface of the dish two depresssions or food pockets 24 and26 are provided in side by side relation and since these two pockets aresubstantially identical in conformation only one needrbe described. Theshape ofthe rightrhalnd pocket 26 is such that as is best shown in Fig.3, the depressed surface slopes at a gradual angle in a downward andforward direction from. the rear rightshand corner of the dish so that,as shown in Fig. .3, the lowermost portion of the food pocket, indicatedat 28, is quite close to the front edge of the dish. Rearwardly of thispoint the surface curves gradually upwardly-and backwardly so that itmeets the top edge :of the dish as has been previously explained at aquite oblique angle. From the lowermost point, that is, the point 2B,the surface of. the depression curves forwardly and upwardly and thence,baokwardlv Band upwardly to form a horizontal tsemi'- cireular portion.30 nearthe front of the dish with the top edge 32 of the openingoverhanging the forwardmost portion 30 of the pocket. This forms anoverhanging lip, the purpose of which will be indicated presently.

The line of the section 33 follows approximately the line an infantusing a spoon will usually take with the bowl of the spoon in obtainingfood from the dish. That is, the tendency is to dip the spoon into thedepression rearwardly and to the right of the position from which thespoon is lifted if the spoon is used in a right-handed manner. 7

It will be seen, therefore, that since the deepest portion of the dishat 28 is overhung by the hp at 32, particularly when it is consideredthat the infant will be at a position somewhat forwardly of the edge ofthe dish, that the food will be difficult to obtain by any spoon motionexcepting one which is directed forwardly, down ly and to the left.Obtaining of the food in this manner is greatly facilitated,particularly when the level of the food is low, by the rounded portion30 which forms the overhanging lip 32. This is because the sweep of thespoon forwardly along the bottom of the dish and thence upwardly aroundthe curved edge 30 will have the effect of causing the food being pushedahead of the spoon to be crowded into the spoon bowl.

The surface of the pocket in the dish also slopes gradually downwardlyfrom the right toward the left, as shown in Fig. 2, so as to provide anoverhanging lip 34 along the left-hand edge of the pocket similiar tothe one just described. In other words, the left-hand edge 34 and thefront edge 32 both' overhang to a considerable extent as does the corner36 where these two edges join. On the other hand,-therearward andright-hand edges of the opening which curve smoothly into each other atthe right rear corner 38 merge into the upper surface of the dish at anoblique angle. Any motion of a spoon into the dish, therefore, for thepurpose of obtaining food is more effective if this motion is directedeither forwardly or to the left or in any direction in between. On theother hand, obtaining food by the motion of a spoon at an angle of 180degrees to the directions just given (which is normal for a left-handedperson) is substantially impossible or at least extremely difficult.

The provision of the dish having a food pocket therein with the compoundcurvature just described is one of the principal features of the presentinvention. In addition, the upper face of the dish has a slight'ovalshaped depression 40 formed between the food opening and the frontright-hand corner which is simply for the purpose of receiving thehandle of the co-operating spoon 42 to be described presently. Beforeconcluding with the description of the dish it should bepointed out thatthe left-hand food opening 24 is substantially identical to theright-hand opening 26 although, if desired, it maybe made somewhatlarger or smaller. Also, the front face of the dish I8 is made concavebecause most trays. on high chairs have a curved edge on the chair sideand the dish therefore nests better against this tray edge if the dishhas this concave form.

The spoon illustrated in Fig. has a handle 44 which may be formed ofmetal, wood or molded plastic material or the like. This handle is wellrounded and is somewhat larger at the point near its attachment to theshank 43 of the spoon than it is at a point som'ewhat farther away fromthe spoon bowl. The end 48 most remote from the spoon bowl is somewhatlarger than the smallest portion. This conformation has been found to bewell suited to its purpose since a study of a large group of infantsindiend of the handle 44 a short distance and then is bent so as toincline downwardly at a comparatively sharp angle. The bowl 50 formed tothe end of the shank is bent outwardly relative tothe shank so as to bein a plane substantially parallel to the center line of the handle.

In addition, the bowl of the spoon together with the shank 46 is given atwist to the side so that if the spoon is viewed from above with the end43 of the handle of the spoon toward the observer the center line of thebowl inclines to the left at about 45 degrees to the center line ofthe-handle. The length of the downward offset of the spoon bowl relativeto the handle is such that when the handle 44 of the spoon is placed inthe depression 40 of the dish the shank 46 extends downwardly into thefood pocket sufficiently so that the bowl 551 of the spoon lies upon thebottom surface thereof and. lies with its center line substantiallyparallel to the section'line 3'-3. Y

' This spoon encourages right-handed eating since if it is held in theway that an infant most easily holds a spoon, the bowl dips easily intothe dish and is pointed toward the childs mouth when the spoon islifted. If, on the other hand, this spoon is held in the left hand, notonly will the spoon enter the dish with considerable difilculty but alsothe bowl of the spoon is pointed away from the childs mouth and theshank 46 lies between the bowl and the mouth. It is thereforesubstantially impossible for aninfant to get the bowl 50 into his mouthso as to obtain the food.

Although it will be seen that the use of either the dish or the spoonalone will have a considerable effect in encouraging right-handed eatingit is also apparent that use of the bowl and spoon in conjunction witheach other operates much more effectively for this purpose. Because thefront edge 32 overhangs the bottom of the dish at 28 and since thenatural tendency of a child is to tryto see the food in the dish, it hasbeen found that the infant usually will lean well forward in order tolook over the overhanging lip 32 with the result that food'spille'd fromthe spoon will be more often confined to the tray of the high chair orat least to the infants bib than is normally the case.

From the above description of a preferred embodiment of my invention itwill be seen that the spoon and dish both encourage right-handed eatingand discourage left-handed eating and in addition, because of thetapering sides'of the dish, it cannot easily be picked up and thecontents spilled and that further the dish promotes easy loading of thespoon and in addition encourages the infant to lean forwardly somewhatso as to confine spilled food to a' comparatively small area. 7

' Although only one embodiment of my invention has been described andillustrated it will be appreciated that variations may be made therefromwithoutdeparting'from the scope of the invention and that therefore theinvention should be measured by the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A training device for infants to encourage the use of the right hand,comprising in combination a dish having a food-containing depressionformed therein, the deepest part of said depression lying adjacent thefront left-hand portion thereof as the dish confronts the infant, thesurface of said depression sloping abruptly upward in the frontalleft-hand direction from the deepest part and gradually upward in therearward right-hand direction therefrom, and a spoon having a handle, ashank and a bowl characterized in that the shank is offset downward andturned to the left so that the longitudinal axis of the bowl is at asubstantial angle to the vertical plane through the longitudinal axis ofthe handle whereby the spoon may be operated against the abruptlysloping portion of the depression surface by normal spoon manipulation.

2. An infants training device for encouraging the use of the right hand,comprising a dish having a food pocket formed therein which slopesgradually downwardly, forwardly, and to the left in the dish as saiddish confronts an infant, the bottom surface of the pocket being soshaped that the forward and left-hand portions of the pocket curvesharply upwardly, and a spoon having a handle, shank and bowl with theshank extending forwardly and downwardly from the handle to join thebowl, the bowl being positioned in a plane substantially parallel to thehandle with its center line at a substantial angle thereto so as to beinclined to the left with respect to the center line of the handle, theplane of the spoon bowl being below the plane of the handle an amountsubstantially equal to the depth of the pocket, and said dish having adepression formed in the top surface thereof to encompass a portion ofthe handle when the spoon bowl rests against the bottom of thedepression.

CLIFFORD S. LA TOUR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date D. 99,827 Seaman May 26, 193620,902 Stimpson July 13, 1858 438,379 Levinger Oct. 14, 1890 766,427Crowell Aug. 2, 1904 1,272,996 Poschadel July 16, 1918 1,625,003 WalkerApr. 19, 1927 2,213,837 Gill Sept. 3, 1940 2,352,684 Braddock July 4,1944

